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TI: That's good. There's one thread I forgot to tie up. Going back to the Bellevue farm, you said earlier, during the war, the Johnston family didn't pay taxes, so you lost the farm.

TW: Yes.

TI: But your older brother Rye actually kept pursuing the case. So tell me what happened to the farm.

TW: Well, I think I mentioned, I remember Rye working, he had graduated from Washington State. I think he worked twelve years on it before he was able to get the farm back and then it got sold. But I don't, he never told me... Rye wasn't much to tell you anything. And like I say, when he was valedictorian, he didn't even tell his mom and dad. But he worked twelve years to get it back, and I remember each of us, well, my sister and I got twenty thousand apiece. And she grumbled about that because she said, "That isn't fair. The boys got more than we did." [Laughs] But that's about all I remember, they did get the farm back for Dad.

TI: So who took over the farm during those twelve years? Was there another family or someone living there?

TW: There was the Johnstons that lived there.

TI: Oh, even though they didn't pay the taxes, they were getting to stay there?

TW: They didn't get... no, and that was my understanding, that's why Dad lost it. And then, of course, it was in the name of a fellow named Kumagai that went back to Japan.

TI: Okay. So your brother Rye, it sounds like, through the court system, challenged the...

TW: And somehow he got it back. I guess he can prove that Kumagai didn't belong, just his name, because Rye wasn't old enough to have it in his name.

TI: Okay, thanks for sharing that. That clears that up.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.